Because we’ve all been there right? Smoking weed, dropping acid, popping a pill, snorted blow…

It can seem like oh-so-much fun and so very sophisticated when you escape the confines of high school and parents and otherwise well-meaning authorities who always told you drugs were bad.

Everyone’s doing it. Can’t be all that bad. Right?

Well… there’s always consequences. And some of those consequences can be completely unexpected. So if you’re a recreational drug taker, or on your way to becoming one… here’s a few things to consider.

1. Your kids are going to want to know what drugs you did.

It’s difficult to imagine now, but at some point in the distant future, maybe even 20 years from now, your kids are going to be hitting their teenage years. And with that will come curiosity, questions and experimentation.

If you’ve been a recreational drug user at some point in your life, you’re going to face a big choice. Lie about your use to your kids. Or be honest and risk that your honesty and experience means they perceive it as okay to take drugs and potentially do themselves some serious harm.

After all, if you partied hard and took a whole load of drugs and came out a-okay, why shouldn’t they?

Problem is, not everyone does come out okay. Back in my drug-taking days, there was a three month period when two friends died from drug-related incidents. One friend got drunk, passed out on the couch and chocked to death on vomit. Another was boating at midnight doing lines of Special K and fell into the water. He didn’t make it back to shore.

Your kids won’t relate to those stories. They’ll relate to you coming through mostly okay. That’s what they’re more likely to base their choices on.

2. At some point, you’re going to have to come clean, and face up to how you really feel about your drug use.

In the midst of partying and having a good time it’s real easy to believe that you’re just having fun. That you’re living life to the fullest, making the most of your youth, going with the flow, expanding your consciousness, becoming one with nature man.

However, any time we’re using a substance to change our reality, we’re subtly avoiding or denying the reality we’re currently living in and there’s a reason for that. What that reason is will be different for every single one of us, but trust me. There’s an underlying issue or 10 that’s driving your drug use. Eventually, you’re going to have to face those issues.

The longer you leave it, the more you run and hide, the more you avoid and deny, the more difficult it will be when you finally face up to the music. Spend 10 years running, and you might spend 10 years clearing the crap.

3. Some jobs take past drug use seriously.

I’ve been completely up-front and honest about my drug-taking past, but I’m also not going for jobs that make it matter.

Some jobs—like anything do to with the military, FBI, CIA, police, fire—are tough to crack if you’ve got a past history of drug use. Sure, you might be 19 and have no intention of doing anything like the FBI, but you have no idea how your life might unfold and where you might be when you’re 29. Suddenly you might be applying for your dream job and discover that your year of hard partying post-high school rules you out forever.

That’s a hard one to swallow.

4. You’ll no longer fit inside the normal parameters when you go for life insurance.

And because you no longer fit inside the ‘normal parameters’ for life insurance, that means you have to pay more. You may be paying more for life.

In my case, my past drug use and history of psychosis (drug-induced) meant my life insurance cost was 30 percent higher than the normal. That’s a huge extra premium for be paying for the next 50 years or so, all because I had a damn good time in my 20s.

Oh, you could lie, sure. Deny any drug use. But with the way information speeds around the ‘net now, guaranteed if you needed to claim on that life insurance, they’ll be looking for any reason to deny it.

5. For the rest of your life, even when you’ve been clean for years, decades, there’ll always be that part of you that remembers and maybe—just maybe—wishes…

It’s been a long time now since I had a stonking great time while high. But I still remember. I still remember what it was like to have those first few Es. I remember those full moon parties on mushrooms. And I remember lazy days spend by the pool smoking weed. Fortunately, I also remember the come-downs. I remember feeling like I just wanted this to stop now. I remember the cost.

Now yoga, meditation and life gets me high—and keeps me high. That’s enough to keep me off the drugs. But if you don’t have a life filled with natural highs, you’ll struggle when the going gets tough. There will be a part of you that remembers the easy high and wishes… maybe, just maybe…

And that’s dangerous.

6. The consciousness-expanding nature of some drugs means you’ll have to find more time-consuming, laborious ways to get back into that state of mind again.

Cue yoga and meditation practice. I loved taking mushrooms outside in nature and dissolving into a total state of oneness, allowing my mind to expand and expand and expand until I didn’t know where I ended and the world began. Everything looked shiny and new and sparkly and so very alive.

Now I can’t just eat a handful of funghi to get there. Instead, I’m dedicated to my yoga practice, spending time each day disciplining my mind so it can open and expand and I can again feel that sense of oneness with the world.

The beauty of this grounded, systematic way of moving toward Oneness is that it’s not dependent on anything outside of me. It’s something that comes when I connect to the deepest part of me and relax and open. It’s something within me. That can never be taken away from me, no matter what.

But it takes commitment, dedication and discipline.

7. Aging drug users just look….sad. And old.

I see this in friends who still party and drink the way I used to in my twenties. They’ve aged, particularly around the eyes. Wrinkles, wrinkles and more wrinkles. Aging drug fiends like Courtney Love may be able to cover it all up with surgery, cosmetics and soft lighting, but the rest of us mere mortals will have to live with the ravages of drug use on our faces and in our bodies.

Just look at photos of Lindsay Lohan a few years ago and compare them to now. Her drug and alcohol abuse shows. And over time, it will show even more.

When you’re young, the flush of youth keeps you looking amazing no matter how you live. But over time, how you live determines how you look. Your life shows up on your face.

8. It may affect future travel plans.

That minor recreational drug use may result in a minor drug conviction. No big deal right? Until you want to travel. Then it suddenly becomes a very big deal.

I’ve got friends with minor convictions for marijuana use who can’t travel to the U.S.. No worries, they say, I never want to go there anyway. But what they didn’t realise was that to get from New Zealand to say Canada, they have to fly through the U.S., landing in either Los Angeles or Hawaii. That minor drug conviction means they can’t. They have to find an alternate travel route, which can sometimes cost a whole lot more money.

Oh wait, Canada can also deny entry based on a drug conviction. Doh. Where to now? China? You have to register with the Police after you arrive if you have any kind of conviction. That sounds like fun.

Bear in mind too that rules for entering countries change all the the time, and generally they get tougher. You may be able to move around alright now with a drug conviction, provided you don’t want to go to or through the U.S., but that could change at any moment.

9. Drug-use can ruin your mental health.

Okay, this is obvious. And is likely something you’ve been warned about. Take drugs and it ruins your health.

Hard to imagine, or quantify though, especially when results may not show up for years. Sometimes though, there are immediate and terrible results.

I made the dangerous mistake of mixing consciousness-expanding drugs like marijuana, mushrooms and acid with meditation and yoga. Cue psyche-explosion and two episodes of psychosis. That messed up my mental health for a long time. Fortunately, I was able to systematically work through those issues of the psyche and put myself back together with the help of drug-free yoga and meditation. Other people haven’t been so fortunate. Just check out your local residential mental health facility.

Now, those may be nine solid reasons to not take drugs, but I’m not going to tell you that. This is not about telling you what to do. No, what I want to do is make you fully aware of consequences so you can do your own self-inquiry and come to your own decisions.

The next time you’re tempted to smoke weed, pop a pill, drop acid, snort blow… pause. Just for a moment. Take a breath or two. Feel yourself in your body. And ask yourself.

Do I really want to do this?

Do I really want to deal with the consequences that arise from this?

Is this the best choice I can make for myself right now?

And if it is—go for it. Go for it with full conscious awareness instead of being driven by your unconscious desires and needs. And challenge yourself to stay conscious of your experience all the way through, from the initial flush of highness to the darkness of the come-down. Stay with it, stay conscious, feel it all, deeply.

Be fully present to your experience. Be fully present to the consequences.

Comments

40822385 Responseshttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.elephantjournal.com%2F2013%2F02%2F9-things-nobody-tells-you-about-recreational-drug-use-in-your-youth%2F9+Things+Nobody+Tells+You+about+Recreational+Drug+Use+in+Your+Youth.2013-02-26+22%3A58%3A50Kara-Leah+Granthttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.elephantjournal.com%2F%3Fp%3D408223 to “9 Things Nobody Tells You about Recreational Drug Use in Your Youth.”

great article Kara-Leah. I have often thought about this issue – I cautiously dabbled in drugs in my 20s too, and for me it lightened me up and helped me to drop some of the serious heaviness I had. But I had some unpleasant times too. I have also been saddened to see the effects of drug use on some of my friends – some of them are not right and never will be again after bad drug decisions. I guess some people should never have drugs; and it's funny how they seem to be the people most attracted by them. I haven't had any drugs for 10+ years and i don't miss them.

Powerful article! I have worked in the recovery field for 30 some years and have witnessed the impact of addiction on clients and their families and friends. I currently provide counseling in an outpatient practice. I plan to share this article with my clients and co-workers. Thanks for your insights! I'm also an Elephant Journal columist. Blessings, Edie Weinstein

While there is much practical advice in this article, it is also dangerously misinformed about psychedelics, and perpetuates many of the myths associated with these healing medicines. For example, the idea that LSD causes psychotic episodes. For a less hysterical and more credible presentation, I'd suggest referring to:

"many of these so called LSD psychoses could be other illnesses that were triggered by the stress of a traumatic psychedelic drug experience"

and:

"Hensala et al. compared LSD-using and non-LSD-using psychiatric inpatients. They found that this group of patients was generally of a younger age and contained more characteristically disordered individuals than the non-LSD-using group. … Based on their observations, they concluded that LSD was basically just another drug of abuse in a population of frequently hospitalized individuals in the San Francisco area, and that it was unlikely that psychedelic use could be deemed etiological in the development of their psychiatric disorders."

We are now learning that, quite contrary to the 'reefer madness-style' scare tactics portrayed above, psychedelics can in fact be incredibly healing: MDMA is proving more efficacious in bringing desperately needed relief to rape victims and combat vets suffering from PTSD than any other treatment available; ibogaine is giving a fresh start and a new lease on life to those addicted to heroin and alcohol, and ayahuasca seems poised to do the same, psilocybin is almost magically relieving the extreme death anxieties of terminal cancer patients and allowing them to re-establish a quality of life that makes life once again precious and worth living to them; ketamine has helped people who have suffered from *decades* of severe depression – sometimes curing them within an hour! The research on these and other benefits is piling up fast, but you certainly wouldn't know it from the 'conventional wisdom' (aka ignorance) on display in the article above as regards these substances.

Further, shamanic cultures across the world have been using psychedelics as efficacious healing medicines for thousands of years. Thus, to so obliviously perpetuate the myth that these sacred substances are akin to dangerous street drugs is to demonstrate the cultural myopia for which Americans are so justly famous.

Is it too much to ask to note that the facts about psychedelics, which are fast emerging from the closet as THE most promising psychological and emotional healing medicines ever discovered, be published along with potential downsides? Such as the fact that psychedelics are extremely low in toxicity and that cases involving overdose and addiction with psychedelics are vanishingly rare to non-existent.

In generalizing 'drugs' as this article does (which is reflective of our cultural conditioning), rather than looking at individual substances and their impacts, the author fails to further the task of education in this regard. Yet another worthwhile cause marred by hasty over-generalization.

Interesting post. I agree with some points but will I am going to challenge some as well.

First, let me give some context. I have taken LSD, and mushrooms literally hundreds of times (however nothing in the past 20 years). Aside from marijuana, I have not tried any other drugs. I switched from drug use to yoga and meditation but that was back when yoga was more associated with Ram Dass and the Beatles than health clubs. Yoga has kept me happy and healthy for more than 20 years, but I also have to give credit my experiences with LSD for providing a spiritual vision to move me to my current path. I stopped because I simply lost interest, I always thought if I ever wanted to take acid or mushrooms again, I would.

In regards to you 9 points, here's my thoughts:

1. I will always be open and honest with my boys about drugs. I hope they will be with me as well.
2. The context of the use is the issue. Recreational use is different than ritualistic use. We were searching for reality rather than avoiding it. Perhaps a little misguided, but our intentions were good.
3. Jobs? I am who I am.
4. I have full life insurance and I was honest when I applied.
5. As I stated above, If I feel the need to do it again I will. But I doubt that will happen.
6. I don't understand the question
7. Agreed
8. I never had trouble with the law
9. This is an interesting point. I have wondered if certain drugs can trigger a pre-existing condition. There is no question in my mind, certain drugs, especially the hallucinogenics, are not for everyone.

LSD can cause psychotic episodes, as can alcohol. Enough caffeine and a person can lose it too.

The article is about recreational use of drugs, not therapeutic. Given the proper environment the drugs you mention can be powerful healers but not always. Ignoring the essential distinction between recreational and therapeutic/traditional use is part of the reason these drugs are kept illegal; the only one spreading myths is you.

Those interested should check out maps.org which is actively doing research on the therapeutic use of psychedelics.

Thank you for this article. My friends and I all knew we weren't getting any sort of honest information about drugs, and dove, sometimes recklessly, into their curious embrace. Had there been some sort of honesty I don't think we would've been as reckless, and perhaps even had a respect for the drugs and their effects, rather than as a thing to be used.

There is a lot of new information coming out about the effects of food and drugs (like pot opening neural gateways, but to nicotine not cocaine or heroin), so I am hopeful that better informed youths will not suffer from their own hubris as myself and others did.

Yes, I agree. Context is everything. The context of this article is recreational use, which is generally partying and having a good time. It is different from ritualistic use. Although the line can be fine… I termed myself a recreational user, and believed I was on a consciousness expanding journey finding out more about life etc…

I have full life insurance too – it just cost me more 😉

Different drugs definitely interact with people differently, there are so many other factors involved.

Life has many aspects and drugs and mind-altering substances, including caffein and alcohol, are part of the potential mix. True, over-using these substances can make it more difficult to fit into the rigid consumer society of modern, developed economies (got to work for the man to make money to keep up). Some of these substances, however, fit into a slower-paced, contemplative life-style. It seems like there is little value placed on that option today. We need alert minds to work in business, but that alertness does not include much of the human experience. Having experimented a bit I can choose to have or not have some of these things in my life. I do not have an addictive personality so it may just be easier for me to say this.

While there is indeed some accurate and insightful information in this article I personally found it to be very judgemental and not particularly compassionate in it's treatment towards people who had made the decision to use "recreational drugs" and ended up with negative results.

I work in the behavioral health field and having been a practicing Buddhist for the better part of 35 years at this point and am personally very tired of this tactic of laying on guilt and what if? tactics in attempt to create "premptive treatment" which in my many years in the field I can honestly say I have almost never seen to be an effective means of getting people to avoid drugs and alchohol.

Education oriented, compassionate and non-judgementaly based treatment have always been the gold standard of sucessful treatment and they remain so today.

This is about mindfullness and the living in the moment that comes with it not the ever incapacitatiting "what if" treatment.

Here is another side. I am 36 years old. I started smoking cigarettes and drinking when I was 16, pot when I was 17 and started taking hallucinogens when I was 17. I have smoked cigarettes and pot for over half my life now and still experiment with hallucinogens on occasion. I do no "look like crap". I actually look much younger than my 36 years. I exercise regularly, eat well and take care of my body and mind. My recreational drug use as a young adult shaped the man I am today. I can honestly say I would not have gone down the paths that I have gone down if it were not for the experiences (both good and bad) I had as a youthful recreational drug user (I even abused a few substances in that time). I have spent most of my adult life working for non-profits with the disabled population and in the schools. I believe in my communities, have life insurance, and know what it is like to be a parent and live with the responsibility of a child's life.

I thought it odd that sugar is not mentioned in this article? Obesity will kill you just as fast as alcohol (maybe faster) and much faster than Marijuana. Refined sugar will mess with your brain chemistry as much if not more than many psychotropics, and this does not even get into the whole self image issue that can lead to breakdowns and extreme feelings of self loathing. McDonald's gets as much air time as their billions and billions can afford, but recreational drug use is the issue?

The truth is we ALL look for ways to alter our consciousness (if not chemicals then yoga, meditation, or running – it is part of the human experience), and ANYTHING done to the point that it becomes the priority over our relationships and responsibilities is problematic. These are the lessons that should be taught, and this has nothing to do with recreational drug use. By pointing the finger at recreational drug use this very important and fundamental lesson is over looked and brushed aside.

I do not think the author is wrong though. She is stating what the effects of early and later drug use has been for her, but presenting it as the universal experience is a bit ingenuous and in the end may alienate more youth than it might help.

Kara-Leah…thank you…great article. One thing that wasn't mentioned is the singling out of the lost time. The lost time of precious years and then only to arrive at very middle age and a big WTF! And, I know for girls craving a male's attention….this can be the very, very wrong crowd to fall in with, no matter how brilliant, how "functioning" and successful those friends are…..you need to make your own way…not drift in their wake.
Luckily, I was very clear to my son about drugs and quit smoking when he was three. He's a "staright arrow" , but it sure made my life less stressful with him eschewing everything I did not.

Very nice article. I like to joke that I experimented with marijuana for twenty years. I can't say that I suffered serious effects, but I had a few friends who fell prey to the "gateway" drug scenario. And several suffered life-changing consequences in their health. I never felt the need to try other drugs. I flirted with disaster a few times, notably a few times at work while employed by the nuclear industry. What a dumbass. My wife and I gave it up before any of our partying friends: one part maturity, one part financial stress, but mostly the realization we were still buying it for others more than for ourselves. Social acceptance, habit, and a longing to stay 18 forever.

We came clean with our daughter years later. She seemed a little shocked at first. But we had a great father-daughter moment last summer. She had gotten the part of Chrissy in a performance of "Hair" and became immersed in the way of life so common in the 60s and 70s. I asked her what she thought now about life in my youth. She just laughed.

I think it is important for young people who are breaking out of their parents' nest to experiment with many things to see just what the world is made of, to know more about the limits of human experience. Only then they can make better informed choices about what they want to have in their lives.

It takes strong parenting to guide our children through this phase: a mix of involvement and advice and of staying in the background, offering support, trusting and waiting to see how things turn out. I experimented more with climbing and somehow lived to see my 30th birthday. I would worry more about my children doing this than smoking pot with their homies.

this piece is beautifully illustrating the 'drug problem' in western society. i think the real problem with drugs is that people mistake the map for the territory. i have found that a drug will not lead you down any particular path.. the drug will simply take you down whatever path you choose. you are not choosing to try cocaine and then try meth, you are choosing to chase the feeling of being high. these choices tend to be unconscious, and it's why you are feeling so much fear and regret, my dear Kara-Leah. in your youth, you experienced great trauma and death surrounding your drug use. your fear for your children is now deeply rooted in this, and you even felt the need to reach out to the community to save us from experiencing the same suffering as you.

you write from a place of prevention, which i think is why many members here have attacked you. they simply do not share your fear of drugs. the personified example was LSD, and it is no surprise to see psychedelics defended in the spiritual community. the case in point is how acid can aggravate existing underlying psychological conditions, but i have always been confused as to why this is a bad thing.. if i am bi-polar or schizophrenic, i'd like to know about it so i can treat it properly.

then, someone mentions the super dangerous drug called sugar! see, the real problem is not the drug. it is the perception of the drug and how it is used. anything in excess is toxic, including water. you can drink too much water and get water poisoning. no one is saving the kids from water, though. this is because there is proper rhetoric and education surrounding the issue of water. but when it comes to drugs.. they sell us drinks & smokes, and throw is in jail if we put anything else in our bodies. how is that fair? there is so much anxiety and fear being created by the stigma surrounding drugs.

i appreciate you reaching out and sharing your story, but i don't see it the way you do. i think one day, like many others, you hit a speed bump in your psychedelic journey and called it quits. seeing your friends fall down and not get up is a harsh experience. i have been there, too. and as i prepare to start a family, i happily long for the day where i can share these beautiful, deep and sometimes dark experiences with my children. the truth has already been told.

one last thing.. you took a pot shot at psychedelics when you said 'becoming one with nature, man..' and i must take exception to this comment. connecting with mother earth is a most sacred feeling. whether you reach these states through meditation or through psilocybin is irrelevant. please do not belittle these experiences.

oops! what i meant to say about that article you linked is that she seems to have gone through a similar experience as you, but with a different view of psychedelics.. she says:

Mushrooms: A favourite for a long time. Organic. A sensory explosion. A consciousness explosion. Extraordinary sense of oneness with the natural world. Total wonderment at the stars, at forests, lakes, rivers and canyons. Worlds upon worlds upon worlds opening up. Until the issues of psyche began to arise, changing the nature of the trip. What was fun became a psychological process with support necessary. Unshed tears from childhood breaking through. Understandings of family dynamics arising. Unresolved or expressed grief coming up. Nothing recreational about this anymore… something much deeper going on.

LSD/Acid: Similar to mushrooms but far more intense. Metallic. Can still taste it. Dangerous. Oh so dangerous. The warnings were clear though. Always on good terms with my dreams, six months prior to LSD-induced psychosis, there was a dream clearly warning me of this event. Where mushrooms had softy begun to expose the unresolved issues of unconsciousness and psyche, LSD flung open the doors of perception and marched out all weaknesses for minute examination. Wasn’t ready for that. Didn’t understand. Collapsed mentally and emotionally.

so as you see.. some drugs are not drugs, they are meditations. quite common to see LSD grouped together with Special K, but those two are about as dissimilar as LSD and sugar. the word psychedelic means 'mind manifesting'.. your subconscious is projected out for you to see. Special K does not do this, nor does sugar.

save the kids from meth & coke, but teach them wisely about opening their minds

You're really reaching with this article. RECREATIONAL drug use (as in sometimes, for fun or otherwise) will not cause most of these problems. It depends completely on the individual! You mentioned you had a drug induced psychosis episode, which leads me to believe you might have a little more fear about drugs than other people. You know people who have died from drug use, many people do. But each person is so different with their reactions & experiences. I know many people in their thirties who still smoke pot regularly or every now & then something else to enhance an experience. It's a chance to break free of the norm. They're not ugly, aged ruined financially or burnt out. You come across as preachy & scared, maybe a little conservatist?

I've noted many of the responses challenging your article are from people who have obviously survived and thrived the experience of mind and body altering substances. I wish I could be so positive, although I too have found my way here in good health. My road and I'm sure many of those who defend their usage contains friends and acquaintances who were not so lucky. Be thankful for the strength of your mind and body. Being honest with my children has been a carefully crafted conversation based on their maturity. I'm grateful my children have found their path of joy by indulging in activities outside of their bodies. And I have been fortunate to have an open line of communication with them. There is no harm in the presentation of this article by the author. The article may not speak to you, but there are others who need to hear these words and think about the path they're on. It will be a great day when we begin to understand the gifts of our world and how to effectively apply them to those in need. Everything in moderation according to the definition of moderation for each individual!

Hi , number 5, that you wrote is a winner.
That’s all you needed to write. The only way to get off an addiction is to trade it in with another. In this case you’ve done it with yoga. That’s awesome. And it’s totally worth it. Trading in drug addictions which can have or lead to problems 1-9 plus a lot more not listed here, is the only and best way to do it. Each person in their culture will be able to figure out their legal healthy and proper high to trade in for. Good luck

First of all thanks for posting a great article – from its popularity and reactions it's obviously proving to be good food for thought and debate. I'd also like to weigh into the discussion with my experience and opinion.

I'm currently a fifth year medical student and although I haven't completed my psychiatric medicine run I have had personal experience with drug induced psychosis/schizophrenia in youth. My father died last year from complications of liver failure after 40 years of be treated and institutionalized for schizophrenia. Two years ago one of my brothers also died – committing suicide after 10 years of suffering schizophrenia. Both my father and brother had their schizophrenia triggered by drugs. The effects of losing a father and brother to drug induced schizophrenia were as you can imagine tragic for both our family and friends.

You could argue that both my brother and father could have developed schizophrenia even if they did not experiment with drugs. I also agree with some other contributors that there are many other ways to harm your health (for instance sugar, or just about anything in excess). I'm not against drugs taking as a whole, for some they can be therapeutic, advance spiritual growth or be just plain fun. However the point I want to make is that perhaps we could be doing a better job of raising awareness about increased risk for some people to develop psychiatric illness after taking drugs. The evidence is there. What we know from research (if you want references let me know) is that;

(1) There is a genetic component to schizophrenia (and bipolar disorder). If you have a close family member who has one of these conditions then you are likely to be at a higher risk of developing the disease yourself.
(2) Adolescents that have a tendency towards anxiety, depression may also be at a higher risk of developing schizophrenia.
(3) A 'prodrome', or early signs of psychosis in adolescents may be heralded by changes in perception, cognition, language, motor function, will, initiative, level of energy and stress tolerance.

Taking some of these factors into account we might want to consider any potential extra risk when deciding to experiment with drugs in our youth or help inform those around us who are making these decisions. Hopefully this article and comments will not 'scare' people into not taking drugs but assist in them making an informed choice when deciding to do so. Having personally experienced what can go wrong with experimenting with drugs I want to come from a place of love and compassion, not fear, to prevent other lives being affected by drug induced schizophrenia.

Very thought-provoking article, and some great comments too! One thing I'd like to add, for anyone who thinks their drug experience is all love-the-world nature-bliss-y: I have seen ganja plantations in the rainforest. It's pretty horrible to see the forest ripped apart to plant a few acres of weed for us. And once it's harvested, a new area is cut down and planted because the soil can't take monoculture. I imagine it's the same for many plant-based drugs, that have to be grown far from legal agricultural areas.

''Trip guns" are used around these plantations to shoot anyone who might come to steal a crop. They accidentally kill deer, ocelots and tapir as well.

The illegal drug industry is one part of an underworld economy that requires guns, ammunition, gangs and other bad things. not all of the people involved are evil henchmen. Some are starving and desperate, some are innocent bystanders, and some are just the consumers who fund the business.

Sorry but I disagree. Life ages you if you let it. I have smoked pot for over forty years and it enhances my life. It truly is medicinal if it is used in moderation and relaxation. Smoke a bit and rethink your position please.

Hi Kara, thank you for your perspective. I totally respect your experiences given the real impact that substances have had on your life and on others' lives. There is definitely some risk whenever one chooses to alter her reality, especially if it does not end in a positive way and can have life long consequences. However, I also want to point out that each individual's experience in relationship to substances is very unique and personal-spiritually, physically, psychologically, biologically. For example, another perspective is that many people (including myself) have experienced incredible learning and growth from the experimentation and exploration of substances, particularly psychedelics. Many people have done so with no adverse effects and have changed their lives from what they've learned with the support of psychedelics. I think that yoga and meditation can also go hand in hand with "consciousness awareness" around the exploration of substances. Be well~~

Sounds a bit preachy for a yogi. Does this purity include no coffee or booze…both drugs…and pharmaceuticals for those psychoses? I have found most people who preach on this subject A) have spotty pasts they are trying to get past and B) use a ton of drugs in daily life…just the ones they or their doc or Phizer thinks are hunky dory.

These kind of soapbox things are often better received when told from a personal perspective rather than a judgmental one.

Shifting consciousness can be good…and can be done with organic juices, yoga, and meditation. Yet in a society that promotes drug use as a cure-all for physical and mental and egoic ailments, it is unlikely people will suddenly be turned in their tracks by born-again drug users offering unsolicited advice.

Still, it's all one facet of truth…one that resonates with my experience as well…just the delivery seems a bit AA-ish, which can be off-putting. Just sayin… : )

How about the effect it has on your unborn children? I bet that wasn't on your mind as you bend over to snort another line in the toilet… Its not just the drugs, its what the drugs are cut with, those chemicals and the effect they have on the users brain and DNA.

As the father of an autistic son I have been exposed to the effect on the entire LIFE-CHANGING effect that these toxins, retained in the body like "pennies in the jar", have had on innocent young humans who just had the misfortune to be born to a previous drug user.

Great article! I spent my twenties buying twenties..of coke. Like you, I managed to turn my life around in great part thanks to meditation and Yoga. I dont regret my past, but the present is so much nicer. Namaste.

I am a 40 year old woman & I use drugs regularly. I am also very fit & active, do yoga and take good care of myself. I cannot tell you how many times people have asked me, why I look so young. Not only that, but people have asked if I am into "clean living". Note: I started to use drugs intentionally at the age of 26 & I have used almost everything and I use quite a lot, once a month – 3x a month. I don't think drugs make people look bad, this is just a ridiculous statement. You know what makes drugs bad = GUILT. If you feel guilty or regret things, this is what makes it BAD. I feel very positive about my drug use and thus, I don't have all this bullshit that comes along with it. This article is incredibly misleading and very one-sided. It is the mind that tells us what is good & what is bad, it is a personal choice.

I love my life off of any mind altering substances, I feel a connection to nature and love being outdoors hiking biking running. As a child I was very shy, did well in school and in sports but definitely had social anxiety. (still do to some extent) I enjoyed my studies in HS and avoided alcohol and drugs. Went to college and went crazy with alcohol and marijuana and did terrible in school despite having all sorts of ambitions- due to too much time spent partying and having hangovers and not enough studying.
The drug use helped with my social anxiety, but the next day I would be worse than my baseline anxiety. I saw the pattern but I didn't or couldn't shake it, until I got out of college and was too poor to afford it. So, I started upping my physical activity and got some counseling and can say I love my life now. I did see first hand friends/family negatively impacted due to alcohol or drug abuse, my best friend- first kiss killed in dui accident before his first day of senior year in college (I miss him every day) and a cousin who suffers from schizophrenia and took every drug under the sun while in high school. That scared the shit out of me and definitely makes me question the harmlessness of drugs.
Now i have my own kids. Two of whom are showing signs of my anxiety… so, I am trying to get them help dealing with it so that they don't need to self medicate. so they can learn to deal with it in a way that doesn't include spending cash on drugs…. One of them has snuck around drinking, smoking driving under the influence, making some questionable decisions online, stolen cash from me and his siblings…. these things I am addressing head on.
I think that it is one thing to experiment, but, when experimentation involves stealing, driving under the influence and putting other people at risk and the drug experimenter at risk, there is a big problem. I just don't think you can predict how drug use will affect an individual's health and his/her ability decision making ability. In my experience use of drugs been a negative one.

I know a few sad and wrinkly yogis too, but I ain't blaming the downward dog!!! Perhaps a catch all Top 9 type article like this is not the appropriate place to discuss one's personal failure to incorporate rec drugs into one's life successfully. I find the tone both churlish and insubordinate, and in light of relaxing laws on the matter of mushrooms (pointing to their amazing healing affects) – counterproductive. OF course there will always be people who can't tolerate various drugs. Long time coffee drinkers have brown teeth and fidgety personalities, but if I drink the stuff, hello something like Crohn's Disease! If anybody has managed to make it this far into my comment, know my truth: If the Earth grows it, the mind knows it – if it's manmade, it'll bite you in the ass. Read: Don't do crack or smack like Mayor Rob Ford – but smoke your weed and do your mushrooms, and you'll never lose touch with who and what you are (you'll only find you faster).

Thabj you so much for this, and specifically for addressing the use of psychedelics. In my circle of friends I seem to be the only one who doesn’t experiment and I am in tears as I write this because I am really having a problem with my boyfriend’s usage. People seem to rationalize by saying that psychedelics are not as bad as cocaine or heroin but I see that he is really reaching for weed, DMT, and now LSD as a means to escape his problems. Every time he uses I have this feeling of being kicked in my solar plexus. I’m so torn because he is a great guy who treats me well but my gut is so loudly telling me not to be in a relationship with someone who loves experimenting so much. So many advice columns on the net say that if it doesn’t interfere with your relationship then just let him experiment but honestly I feel I have to listen to my gut…
Sorry for rambling that just came pouring out of me unexpectedly. Thank you for the post.

A responsible article by any measure. But one which fails to mention any benefits of drug use…

1. Providing an experience outside of our normal routine, (a life of consumerism and conformity).
2. The exercise of freedom, and the first-hand knowledge of what it really feels like.
3. An escape valve from the constant stress of our daily lives.
4. An altered state which for many counted as their first spiritual experience.

I work as a counsellor with drug abusing teens and the biggest thing that I wish they could understand but don't because they truly believe that it won't happen to them is that the process of addiction can happen in as little as 9 months (depending on the drug of choice) in the developing brain. Whereas for most adults to develop an addiction (keeping in mind that this only applies if they started using after 23) is 9 years. Its a huge difference. The risks are high. Addiction changes your brain in very real and irreversible ways but every teen thinks it won't happen to them… and then sometimes it does and they realize that no one could have warned them because they wouldn't have believed it anyway. They are just happy that a trust adult was standing by to ask for help when they realized they absolutely needed it.

No I don’t agree with what you said about an “aging drug user”. The double standard in society is he’s 40 and smokes weed twice a day it’s sad. If the same person were taking a Xanax or oxycodone twice a day it would be ok. It’s sad that people put down others and judge them for personal decisions while they do the same things just threw a doctor.

Drugs killed my relationship and turned a good man into an emotional cripple who had to smoke a joint at least 5 or 6 times a day and drink 4 bottles of beer minimum every night. Although I am convinced there was a "nasty" side to him in the first place, the drive to get high many times a day only made it worse, he "borrowed" money and never paid it back, also stole money from me and denied it, even denied the borrowing when I asked for my £100 to be returned. He also verbally abused and some physical abuse when I tried to leave because he refused to seek help for any of his other addictions, one of which was daily gambling. The constant denial that he had a problem was too much for me and I refused to be his enabler after 4 years of hoping for change. Needless to say he also was incapable of completing his degree or seeking employment and lived his life around rolling a joint. I have never used drugs, except for a random beer or glass of wine once in a blue moon and from where I was sitting with the ex, all I saw was a sad, disillusioned man hanging around with other druggies and alcoholics, all looking for something in their bag of hash or weed or at the bottom of a bottle. To anyone who says drugs aren't harmful, I disagree. You may think you are in control, my ex did, but his perception of himself was so warped by his usage that he couldn't see past his own nose, let alone reflect on himself and his behaviour. Before being with him, I had a different view of stoners, even though a good friend wasted years of her life smoking and achieving nothing but regret, which she will freely admit at the age of 47. I liken it to slowly drowning and you have no idea that you are and when someone pushed out a boat to help you, you're so stuck in denial, you have no idea what the "boat" is even for. Take care and be clean people. Namaste.

The truth for me in this article came with the mental affects long term. I spent six years without a sober day, often mixing me recreational use. Then I almost od’d in a bathtub… That’s when I got clean. Even when someone tells you that it could long term affect your mental health you don’t ever listen because you’re young and want to do it anyways. These years I have a great amount of paranoid to deal with, and I’m lucky it’s just paranoia as it could be so much worse. People daily comment on how “you used to be the life of the party and now you’re just scared of life”, well yeah, it’s easy to be the life of the party when you are tripping on shrooms or hosting your Saturday night white line party.

I must challenge the truthfulness of this article because HOW can the author compares a mindbending experience of the sacred mushroom to simply sitting on his butt like a contorted pretzel, putting his legs to sleep and chanting OMMMM?? I can understand the truth in the legal ramifications but Yoga as a substitute? Clearly, this person never used drugs or we would all be able to experience their combined bliss by doing nothing. A better, more credible story would have been made if he mentioned what Charlie points out where they cut drugs with all kinds of things including rat poison just to make a quick buck instead of summarizing the film, Reefer Madness.

Another point the author does not make is what happens to the people who are hired to transport drugs and get caught by the law? I do not mean what happens in the US court, I mean what the employers do when they lose money? Certainly those poor people cannot afford to write a check for the amount of a nice house to cover the loss.

There are worse things in life than using drugs and some of those are…..good intentioned half truths and misinformation.

I always feel good inside as a 45 year old who STILL gets carded and even when those younger than me and in my age-range find out my age; are still flabbergasted. Feels good. I tell them my secret: no drug use, don't smoke (never did), drink occasionally (socially; maybe every 4 months?), don't tan anymore (used to, but stopped in my late 20s). It does help that I am Latino (I have some melanin), but I don't have fine wrinkles around my eyes or mouth. My dark hair still has few random grays and I feel energetic. Trust me young folks; if you even care about your appearance and future appearance, then don't use heavy drugs or better yet, don't start using. I still can't get over the number of people who are pot heads or recreational users and think they are so cool, so relevant. Good for you. You have every right to do whatever you want to your body. I care too much about what I look like to follow your reckless paths just to be "cool". No thanks.

This was a horrible article that had very little substance. Just feat mongering and platitudes of fear meant to scare people. To lump psychedelics in with opiates and other pills is absurd. To compare marijuana to any other drug is just stupid.
I have smoked marijuana every day since I was 14 (I am 50) and I look 40.
I bike every day and work out every day. I have taken psychedelics my whole life. My insurance company has never asked me about it. I call BULLSHIT!!!!!!!